Development of Paper Cutting Machine

Paper slitter rewinder machine is a paper cutting machine which are used to convert wide paper rolls into narrow strips, and rewind them onto winding shaft for the further conversion in paper mill. It helps to make production, conversion, packaging and transportation of modern paper packaging industry possible, also plays a crucial role in the long history of industrialization in the West. Please follow LEAP to understand the development of paper slitting and rewinding machines.

Paper manufacturing process

The components used to manufacture specific kinds of paper are combined, mixed, and then form a viscous liquid called slurry. The composition and weight of paper finished products depend on the quantity and type of ingredients used in the manufacturing of pulp, and produce various types of paper products including notebook paper, building paper, tissue, etc. This slurry is poured onto a mesh conveyor belt, sometimes referred to as a wire mesh, and is typically transported through four steps. The first step is the forming process, discharge excess water from the pulp while processing the solid material of mixture into a continuous layer. This can be realized by using gravity, vibration, vacuum and tension. Once most of the water is discharged, the paperboard will be brought into pressing stage, a series of rotating drums are used to squeeze out the remaining water via using pressure and felt, and it will be removed by absorption. Once the sheet is formed and pressed, the liquid is removed, and the remaining damp material is dried through a series of steam heating machines during the drying stage, to get completely dry paper sheets. At this point, the generated paper materials still require extensive surface treatment to obtain the desired appearance, handle and performance. It first undergoes a process called sizing, which determines the water resistance and reduces the possibility of fuzzing by adding different adhesives and resins. Subsequently, calendering process, which is equivalent to secondary rolling, can effectively improve smoothness, glossiness and uniformity. At this stage, continuous finished paper sheet is wound onto a large metal shaft to form a finished paper roll.

You may have noticed that the paper cutting machine was not mentioned at any time in previous text, because the paper slitter rewinder machine is usually used after completing all above processes. Once the paper has been manufactured and formed into a roll, it can be unfolded and fed into a slitter rewinder, cut into any narrow strip paper with desired width, and then rewound onto multiple smaller winding shafts on other side. This is the position of LEAP paper slitting rewinding machine in production process.

Cutting methods of paper slitter rewinder

According to operation process， the paper slitter rewinder can be divided into three stages. First, unfold the paper roll so that the single layer can pass through the slitting and rewinding equipment. When it passes through the machine, it’s cut into strips based on required width through one of multiple different cutting methods. After then, the paper strips can be rewound into finished paper rolls for sale. Various kinds of knives ensure the cleanest, the most economical and the most efficient cutting for each type of paper, greatly reduce production costs and time.

The cutting method of paper mainly depends on the properties of paper material. The oldest cutting method is called pressure cutting, which cuts material between a relatively blunt blade and a hard roller surface. This method helps to cut adhesive products such as various types of paper tapes. This method is fast and easy to set up, however it may cause excessive dust when used with paper. The second simplest cutting method is razor cutting. This is also the most economical method. It uses a positioning blade, which is usually suspended above the paper feeding area. When the paper passes through a series of rollers, the blade edge extends downwards into a space or groove in one of the rollers. This method cannot be used to cut heavy, thick or rigid paper materials. In addition, during the high-speed cutting process, the friction between blade and paper will produce heat, and shortens its service life. Shear cutting is the most accurate longitudinal cutting method, which can be used for heavier, thicker and harder paper materials. Use upper and lower circular knives which is rotatable. When paper material is pulled between these two blades, will be cut from top to bottom like scissors. The disadvantage of this method is that the adjustment and use of knives are relatively complex.

The development of paper slitting machine

In recent years, significant progress has been made in optimizing the efficiency of paper slitting machines. For one, add inspection equipment between paper production line and cutting machine. Although an additional step was added, it greatly reduced shutdown malfunction due to paper quality issues or paper feeding errors. The inspection and rewinding machine ensures the quality of mother rolls by unwinding, inspecting and rewinding process before loading it into cutting machine, reduce the downtime and material waste, and improve the quality of finished paper rolls.

By improving technology process such as changing winding tension and roller hardness, many winding problems such as deformation, cavitation, stretching, star-shaped, etc, can be better avoided. With the development of increasing digitization, intelligence and automation, LEAP slitting rewinding equipment allows for more precise adjustments throughout the whole process and reduce the need for a large number of manual interaction. Another relatively new development is the use of an independent winding mechanism. Even if one of them is removed or closed, the remaining winding mechanism can also keep working. The addition of various rewinding configurations is also allowed to realize the desired tension and winding angle. Although the technologies of pulping and molding have existed for a long time, modern paper manufacturing industry cannot meet our demands for many paper products without the benefit of continuous production and the ability to automatically convert these large rolls of paper into small, independent and consumable products. Therefore, the next time you use each piece of paper, please remember that the last machine you see before packaging is likely the paper slitter rewinder.